Markets & expansion

The H&M group continues to grow. The expansion is long-term and takes place through our different brands, each with their own unique identity.

Our offering is aimed at fashion fans all over the world. We are growing with a focus on quality and sustainability in existing markets as well as in new countries. The H&M group includes the brands - H&M and H&M Home, COS, & Other Stories, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday, ARKET and Afound.

Expansion

The global integration of stores and online continues. Work is continuing at full speed to roll out online globally to all existing H&M markets and to other markets as well. In the 2018 financial year H&M’s online store opened in a further four new markets – India and, via franchise, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – and also on Tmall in China. Today H&M’s online store is in 47 markets. In 2019 the online expansion will continue, including into Mexico as well as into Egypt via franchise.

In 2018 Afound was opened as a new brand. Two new H&M store markets opened in 2018: Uruguay and Ukraine, where the response from customers was very positive. New H&M store markets in 2019 will be BosniaHerzegovina, Belarus and Tunisia via franchise.

The shift in the industry is opening up the way for improved lease terms and the H&M group has opportunity to renegotiate nearly 1,000 store leases in 2019. For the 2019 financial year around 335 (375) new stores are planned to open, of which around 240 will be H&M stores. Around 95 of the year’s store openings will be COS, & Other Stories, Monki, Weekday, ARKET and Afound stores. In 2019 three standalone H&M Home stores are planned to open. Of the new H&M stores that open in 2019, around 25 will have an H&M Home shop-in-shop. The majority of the H&M store openings will be in markets outside of Europe and the US. In total, approximately 160 (146) store closures are planned within the group, which is part of the intensified store optimisation being carried out that also includes renegotiations, rebuilds and adjustment of store space to ensure that the store portfolio is the best fit for each market. The net addition of new stores will thus amount to approximately 175 (229) for full year 2019. In Europe more H&M stores will be closed than opened, resulting in around 50 fewer H&M stores at the end of the 2019 financial year compared with the end of 2018.